Mothers Day - Mushrooms Neptune

Alas my summer has been a busy one but I have been diligently documenting my adventures however now it's time to play catch up!

For mothers day my mother asked that my gift to her would be a cooked dinner...I was more than happy to oblige!

We started the meal wit mushroom caps stuffed with crumbled bacon, crab meat, shallots, and cream cheese. The process is a fairly simple one, saute the bacon, onion and the mushroom stems in a dollop of butter. Then mix in cream cheese until you have a relatively smooth mixture. Press the mixture into the mushroom caps and than roll them in super fine breads crumbs.

Place them in a raised pan and add just enough water to keep them from drying out. Bake until golden brown!



The yummy end result! This time I added more bacon and shallots and they were a smash!!

Chicken Fried Steak with Jalapeno Cheese and Dollar fries

First off I must say that I don't eat like this very often. These particularly unhealthy dishes are reserved for the most horrible of days, when only grease will make it all better. That happened to be the case last Friday. It was a heck of a day, so I decided that comfort was in order.

I pounded the chicken flat, floured,egged and breaded it with La Conchita taco chip crumbs. I then placed the chicken in my favourite pan the cast iron skillet! I added the cheese and watched it melt.

The next step was the dollar fries. These are a dish that when I think of I smile. They were the ultimate treat when I was a kid, however mom didn't totally deep fry them, she'd just fry them in a pan with a wee bit of oil. I decided that if I was going to make them lets make them worth the work. I scrounged around in my pantry for the oil, I ended up using, canola oil, sunflower oil, olive oil and something just labeled 'cooking oil'. I poured those bits into my electric wok and let it heat.

Once the oil was hot I dumped my thin, wispy potato slices into the hot oil and watched them brown. It seemed to take forever with the first batch, but with each batch the cooking times got shorter and shorter.

The end result was simply amazing. I drained them on paper towels and seasoned them with a bit of seasoning salt. They look over done in the photo, but they tasted amazing and made me long for saratoga chips at the Ex. Maybe this year we'll go just for the food...

The meal was tasty, but I ended up abandoning my chicken and just ate the chips. A sinfully delicious meal that had not a veggie in sight...completely unheard of for us. The perfect ending to a crummy day!!

w/g free brownie

I decided that since I was taking the strawberry-rhubarb pie to the wiebe's Easter dinner I should also take something sweeter for the choc-o-holics that live there (one BIG kid, one small one).

I happened to have a w/g free brownie mix in my cupboard so I thought why not? I added almost a whole bag of chocolate chips to the mix (if you're going to do it do it right!).

This was the best brownie I've ever had, so soft, so moist, so rich and chocolaty...it even made my brother in law go back for seconds (amazing since he was on a health food only kick).

W/G free pecan pie

So for my families Easter dinner I was going to bring a dessert that I could eat...for some reason it bugs me (I think it had to do with the fact that for my birthday my mom made a birthday cake I couldn't eat...I usually don't care and will often skip dessert, but it was a birthday cake...for me...that I couldn't eat...I dunno I guess I'm overly sensitive).

So I decided to make a pecan pie...I'd never had it, but for some reason I thought it would be fun. I think it also had something to do with the fact that my sister was making apple pie and I didn't want to bring another fruit pie (which I ended up doing anyways).

The filling was melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, evaporated milk and chopped pecans. I then baked it for half an hour. I chose this recipe because it was one of the few that didn't have corn syrup...I thought that would make the pie too sweet.

The end result was really yummy and I think I now have a new favourite pie! I will say though I wasn't a huge fan of the pecans. After the first few bites I ended up scraping them off and enjoying the custardy like filling with yummy pastry.

It was just too good for words!

W/G free Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

So with Easter dinners galore to attend I decided this year that I would not be the person who could not eat dessert. That and I had to prove that I could indeed make a w/g free pie pastry after the less than stellar corn flour based peach pie pie I made last year.

I felt that this would not be an issue after discovering the pastry blend mix at Lorenzo's that makes pastry dough seem like the easiest thing in the world to make. So I thought what kind of pie to make first.

Well my dad's a big fan of rhubarb (as am I), but how could I find it at this time of year? I found my answer at Safeway in the frozen food section. Like the dunce I am I had no idea you could buy it frozen. Well the rhubarb pieces were huge! I kid you not they were the size of a child's fist, so I thawed them enough to cut them smaller and cut up some fresh strawberries and mixed the two with some w/g free flour and some sugar, all spice and cinnamon.

The end result was something I was proud of. I found out later that it was not as flaky as regular pie pastry from the pie connoisseurs in my family, but my sister in law (I made a pie for each dinner) thought there was no difference.

The pie wasn't overly sweet, it actually had a tart taste to it which for me and many other was a refreshing after the heavy dinners we'd had.

A success!

Easter Dinner

So my in laws were out of town for Easter (they go south for the winter...lucky bums), so my sister in law decided that it would still be fun if we did a dinner with just the kids. I made meatballs in mushrooms sauce, rolls, and dessert and she made the ham, potatoes and salad.

It was a fun fabulous stress free time (it always seems that family dinners turn into more drama then need be). We split the work and I'm really thinking that's the way to go!

My brother in law decorated the ham with orange slices which somehow made the whole thing seem so much happier. A simple, easy yummy dinner...all family gathering should be this much fun! We ended the night by watching team canada curl their way to yet another win!

All in all a great Easter!

W/G free pizza

So after the cinnamon bun disaster I decided not to be deterred by w/g free dough. So what else could I make? Hmm... well I've been craving pizza like mad so why not?

I made the dough the same way you make any dough...mix..rise...kneed...rise...roll it out. I then decided to add mushrooms, pineapple, onion and shredded pepperoni (I'm not a big fan of chunks of meat).

I used two different kinds of cheese a partly stretched/skimmed mozzarella and a jalapeno cheddar. I must say the end result was super yummy! The base of the pizza was crumbly and it again was kinda crunchy but with pizza it worked.

Still not as good as boston pizza though...I really wish that I could create a bread dough that wasn't so heavy and crunchy...the quest continues...